Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation transitions partnership to St John NSWThe Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation is excited to announce the next stage of the Take Kare Safe Space Program, transitioning its partnership with The Salvation Army to St John NSW. The Foundation partnered with The Salvation Army in December 2014 to develop a volunteer base and first aid service to help young people avoid the risk of late night alcohol fuelled violence in Sydney’s CBD and Kings Cross area. The partnership has been extremely successful, assisting more than 19,000 people since its inception.The next stage in the evolution of the program is to provide volunteers and staff access to St John vehicles, defibrillators, oxygen and first aid kits for those in need of urgent medical attention.

Ralph Kelly sees hope for crime victims facing financial hardship with the NSW Government introduction of the financial hardship package. NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton on Sunday 29th May announces a new program of free financial counselling available to all victims of crime facing hardship as part of a wraparound service that starts with trauma counselling.

University of New South Wales Australia (UNSW), through its National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), has officially entered into a formal strategic partnership with the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation on 11th March 2016. The Partnership is twofold:

i) Exploring a range of potential future activities that are evidence-based, likely to reduce alcohol-related harm in the community, be sustainable and globally relevant and,

ii) Undertaking an evaluation of the Safe Space and Take Kare Ambassador Program through a proposed economic evaluation of the costs and benefits of the Safe Space initiative. This evaluation requires obtaining three sets of data, each of which would be converted into monetary terms.

(i)The cost of providing Safe Spaces,

(ii)Estimating the direct benefits of Safe Spaces,

(iii) Estimating the value that the community places on having Safe Spaces available for young people.

I'll declare my interest – I want Sydney to be a safer city. This is my only motivation. I'm not a religious zealot or a prohibitionist. I like a drink. I would like to see a vibrant city but also a safe and attractive one. If this means slightly shorter trading hours for pubs and clubs, so be it.

In January 2014 the O'Farrell government introduced a range of measures designed to curb the incidence of alcohol-related violence. At the time there was a call for changes, with this newspaper one of the leading advocates. The most contentious change was the 1.30am lockout laws and 3am last drinks in the Sydney precinct.

Since then there has been a dramatic drop in assaults in Kings Cross and the city. While statistics can be manipulated and misquoted it is undeniable that there are less assaults and there has not been an increase in the surrounding precincts – anyone who doubts this can see it on the BOCSAR website. In April last year Dr Don Weatherburn, director of BOSCAR, described the drop in assaults as "simply precipitous … It is certainly one of the most dramatic effects I've seen in my time, of policy intervention to reduce crime".

As the weather warms and our days become filled with boozy day parties, music festivals and all-night bonfires, it seems like consuming alcohol is an everyday event.

But is your seemingly harmless margarita among friends doing you more harm than good?

Most experts believe it does. Dr. Jake Deutsch, founder and clinical director of CURE Urgent Care, told Women’s Health even those who are moderate drinkers should consider laying off the booze now and again.

“Damage to the liver is cumulative. So having a few drinks every day may be just as harmful as excessive binge drinking. The constant insult to the liver and digestive track can lead to ulcers, pancreatitis, and cirrhosis,” Dr. Deutsch said.

Royal Life Saving Australia has warned people not to swim after drinking alcohol over the Australia Day weekend, as new figures reveal a dramatic increase in drownings this summer.

Since the start of December, Royal Life Saving Australia has recorded a total of 59 drownings, a 16 per cent increase in deaths from the same period last year.

Young men were the most at risk, with males aged 25-44 making up more than one-quarter of all drownings.

In fact, males accounted for 80 per cent of all summer drownings - a statistic that is "unfortunately bang on trend" with annual averages, where men drown at four times the rate of women, according to Royal Life Saving National Manager of Research and Policy, Amy Peden.

There is an uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu surrounding the sickening, senseless and ultimately fatal attack on 18-year-old Queenslander Cole Miller.

As we collectively mourn the loss of another young Australian, an innocent victim of a coward punch, we are reminded of the deaths and the injuries of so many others, as a result of alcohol related violence on our streets.

Three families, forevermore incomplete, plunged into an almost incomprehensible mourning.

The deaths of Sydney teenagers Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie were separated from that of Cole Miller's by more than 900 kilometres and three and a half years.

But they were tragically, hauntingly similar.

Each popular 18-year-old walked unwittingly into the path of their killers, or alleged killers in the case of Cole, while on a night out with friends in inner-city entertainment precincts.

Each suffered a ferocious, single blow to the head that knocked him to the footpath with head injuries so severe he would lapse into a state of unconsciousness he would never wake from.

Each was rushed to a nearby hospital, where, in the coming hours and days, devastated family gathered around his bed, where they were forced to make the agonising decision to switch off his life support and watch him slip away.

Each young man's life ended, just as it was beginning, by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

SEVEN people have been charged with fatal coward punches under the state’s tough new laws, with four of them facing a mandatory jail term of eight years if convicted, because they were allegedly drunk.

They include a son who police claim hit his father in the head after an afternoon’s drinking, and a man who allegedly knocked his partner unconscious in their bedroom.

Both victims died.

In another case, a male nurse died after he was allegedly struck once in the face outside a 21st birthday party as he tried to intervene in an argument between his alleged killer and the man’s girlfriend.

The controversial laws were introduced two years ago to curb alcohol-fuelled violence after the fatal one-punch attacks on teenagers Thomas Kelly and Daniel Christie in Kings Cross.

Sydney Lockout laws here to stay - Mike Baird

BOTTLE shops across the state will be forced to continue closing at 10pm, with Premier Mike Baird adamant the ­restriction will not be removed following a two-year review of NSW’s mandatory lockout laws next month.

National Party MPs had hoped the restriction could be loosened in the bush, but the Premier is understood to be of the view all the alcohol restrictions put in place by his predecessor Barry O’Farrell should remain intact.

Mr Baird’s stance means all current lockout and drinks ­restrictions in the Sydney CBD and Kings Cross are expected to remain in place long term.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione last year noted the extraordinary decline in violent assaults near Sydney pubs and clubs just one year after new drinking laws were introduced.

The numbers spoke for themselves. According to Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research statistics, assaults were down by 32 per cent in Kings Cross and down by a massive 40 per cent in central Sydney after new laws were put in place in 2014 for 1.30am lockouts and 3am last drinks.

It is vital that we never forget the tragic reasons for those new laws.

On behalf of everyone at the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation, we’d like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Cole Miller, following his passing.

Thomas, like Cole, was 18 years old when his life was tragically cut short from a violent and unprovoked attack. Everyone has the right to enjoy our beautiful cities and their night out without fear or intimidation,

The father of a teenage water polo player killed in an allegedly unprovoked, one-punch attack in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley has remembered his son as a "brave young man".

A year off sugar and alcohol has left the author in a considerably lighter place.

I read a book, David Gillespie's Sweet Poison. There's a bit of mumbo-jumbo in there, but the premise is very simple: sugar is killing us all. The more processed a food or drink product is, the more sugar they whack into it, simply so they can sell more.

Sweet Poison, oddly, didn't go too much into the dangers of grog, so I sort of gave myself a free pass on that, and could have drunk wine for Australia.

Stay safe this NYE - the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation "Take Kare" Ambassadors and the City of Sydney team up to man the cities information booths at Customs House, QVB, The Rocks, Wynyard and Macquarie Street, as well as Town Hall and Kings Cross.

Get help with directions, charge your phone, need basic first aid or a water, find your friends or help getting home.